 A survey of 202 marketers found that, “data analysis” is now ranked as more important than social media skills, web development, graphic design and knowledge of SEO.” So what does that mean for those of us in the third sector?

How do you leverage your marketing skills to improve your social impact? What’s the most important element of your marketing strategy? Social media? Great Design? A smart looking, functional website? Well according to 72% of marketers in one recent study, it was something entirely different: data analysis. A survey of 202 marketers, conducted by BlueVenn found that, “data analysis” is now ranked as more important than social media skills, web development, graphic design and knowledge of SEO.” So what does that mean for those of us in the third sector?

You may be wondering how relevant these stats may be to your organisation. For those of us in the third sector, it’s vital that we focus on, and pour all our efforts into working towards our core values, why we started, rather than on some new fad marketing scheme.

There is, however, real practical value in good data analysis. One website reported that, “Analysing data relating to over 50,000 vehicle visits to franchised dealer workshops across the UK during December 2016, Marketing Delivery found that 32% of the customer records lacked at least one key element necessary for securing future aftersales business.” In this case, poorly organised, or non-existent data, stopped companies from attracting more customers, or in our case, more funders and donors. For a much larger scale example, this study also shows how Walmart managed to use data analysis effectively in order to increase sales, year on year.

You needn’t constantly spend lots of money you don’t have, on marketing tools you don’t need in order to further your social impact.

Here’s the good news. You needn’t constantly spend lots of money you don’t have, on marketing tools you don’t need in order to further your social impact. We’ve found quite the opposite to be true. Take the example of Bristol Together. They said this:

“When you’re mixed up in the day to day busyness of running a project, dealing with people being sick, sorting out budgets, sorting out resources, you don’t have the time to sit down and ask the uncomfortable yet important questions. Anyone can ask these questions but what you don’t have is the time to process the data properly and the time to make actioned points off the back of that. Most companies do not have time to do that, unless they get someone in. Having good data and the resulting action points can save you thousands of pounds, so I would totally recommend this kind of insight work to any small or medium sized business or charity.”

At Core Insights, we believe that the most effective way of making the most of the data you have, is ensuring that your staff have the ability to use and understand it. We believe in upskilling your staff to be able to do all the work themselves, rather than having to spend money, time and time again on costly call outs.

If you’d like to find out more, or you’d like to book a free consultation with us, fill in this form.